• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회B
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• pp.3175-3180
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• 2008

A metal-fueled pool-type liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) provides large margins to sodium boiling and fuel damage under accident conditions. The favorable passive safety results are obtained by both a reactivity feedback mechanism in the core and a passive decay heat removal system. Among the various reactivity feedbacks, the ones by a thermal expansion of a radial dimension of the core and by the control rod drivelines are strongly dependent on the flow conditions in the core and the hot pool, respectively. The effects of multidimensional thermal hydraulic characteristics on these reactivity feedbacks are investigated by the system-wide safety analysis code SSC-K with advanced thermal hydraulics models. Particularly a detailed three dimensional thermal hydraulics reactor core model is integrated into SSC-K for use in a whole system analysis of the passive safety aspects of LMR designs. The model provides fuel and cladding temperatures for every fuel pin in a reactor and coolant temperatures for every coolant sub-channel in the reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권2호
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• pp.148-156
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• 2015

Several vendors have recently been actively pursuing the development of integral pressurized water reactors (iPWRs) that range in power levels from small to large reactors. Integral reactors have the features of minimum vessel penetrations, passive heat removal after reactor shutdown, and modular construction that allow fast plant integration and a secure fuel cycle. The features of an integral reactor limit the options for placing control and safety system instruments. The development of instrumentation and control (I&C) strategies for a large 1,000 MWe iPWR is described. Reactor system modeling-which includes reactor core dynamics, primary heat exchanger, and the steam flashing drum-is an important part of I&C development and validation, and thereby consolidates the overall implementation for a large iPWR. The results of simulation models, control development, and instrumentation features illustrate the systematic approach that is applicable to integral light water reactors.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.2053-2058
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• 2004

The pressurized light water cooled, medium power (330 MWt) SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) has been under development at KAERI for a dual purpose : seawater desalination and electricity generation. The SMART design verification phase was followed to conduct various separate effects tests and comprehensive integral effect tests. The high temperature / high pressure thermal-hydraulic test facility, VISTA(Experimental Verification by Integral Simulation of Transient and Accidents) has been constructed to simulate the SMART-P (the one fifth scaled pilot plant) by KAERI. Experimental tests have been performed to investigate the thermal-hydraulic dynamic characteristics of the primary and the secondary systems. Heat transfer characteristics and natural circulation performance of the PRHRS (Passive Residual Heat Removal System) of SMART-P were also investigated using the VISTA facility. The coolant flows steadily in the natural circulation loop which is composed of the steam generator (SG) primary side, the secondary system, and the PRHRS. The heat transfers through the PRHRS heat exchanger and ECT are sufficient enough to enable the natural circulation of the coolant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.287-298
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• 2007

As part of the $AP1000^{TM}$ pressurized water reactor design certification program, a series of integral systems tests of the nuclear steam supply system was performed at the APEX-1000 test facility at Oregon State University. These tests provided data necessary to validate Westinghouse safety analysis computer codes for AP1000 applications. In addition, the tests provided the opportunity to investigate the thermal-hydraulic phenomena expected to be important in AP1000 small-break loss of coolant accidents (SBLOCAs). The APEX-1000 facility is a 1/4-scale pressure and 1/4-scale height simulation of the AP1000 nuclear steam supply system and passive safety features. A series of eleven tests was performed in the APEX-1000 facility as part of a U.S. Department of Energy contract. In all, four SBLOCA tests representing a spectrum of break sizes and locations were simulated along with tests to study specific phenomena of interest. The focus of this paper is the SBLOCA tests. The key thermal-hydraulic phenomena simulated in the APEX-1000 tests, and the performance and interactions of the passive safety-related systems that can be investigated through the APEX-1000 facility, are emphasized. The APEX-1000 tests demonstrate that the AP1000 passive safety-related systems successfully combine to provide a continuous removal of core decay heat and the reactor core remains covered with considerable margin for all small-break LOCA events.

• 한국전산유체공학회지
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

RCCS is a passive safety-related system that removes the decay heat of VHTR when normal decay heat removal systems are in failure. Understanding thermo-hydraulics of RCCS is important to design a safer VHTR. RCCS consists of 292 cooling panels, which are placed in the reactor cavity. The layout of RCCS gives an idea that, for CFD simulations, cooling panels can be assumed to be one annulus tube. This assumption can reduce significantly the computational time, especially for the unsteady simulation. To simulate RCCS in an axisymmetric manner, three models were suggested and compared. Each model has (1) the same outer radius, (2) the same cross-sectional area (3) the same pressure drop, respectively, as the RCCS cooling panels. The steady-state simulation was conducted with these three models and the DO radiation model. It is found that over 90% of the heat from the outer wall of the reactor pressure vessel is transported to the RCCS by radiative heat transfer. The simulation with the third model, which has the same pressure drop as the design, estimates the closest wall temperature profiles to a thermo-hydraulic code, GAMMA+, result.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.1555-1562
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• 2023

Natural circulation phenomena have been nowadays largely revisited aiming to investigate the performances of passive safety systems in carrying-out heat removal under accidental conditions. For this purpose, assessment studies using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and also 3D thermal-hydraulic system codes are considered at different levels of the design and safety demonstration issues. However, these tools have not being extensively validated for specific natural circulation flow regimes involving flow mixing, temperature stratification, flow recirculation and instabilities. In the present study, an experimental test case based on a small-scale pool test rig experiment performed by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, is considered for code-to-code and code-to-experimental data comparison. The test simulation is carried out using the FLUENT and the 3D thermal-hydraulic system CATHARE-2 codes. The objective is to evaluate and compare their prediction capabilities with respect to the test conditions of the experiment. It was observed that, notwithstanding their numerical and modelling differences, similar agreement results are obtained. Nevertheless, additional investigations efforts are still needed for a better representation of the considered phenomena.

• 시스템엔지니어링학술지
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.91-99
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• 2016

The safety of nuclear power plants has received much attention; this safety largely depends on the continuous availability of electrical energy source during all modes of nuclear power plant operation. A station blackout (SBO) describes the loss of the off-site electric power, the failure of the emergency diesel generators, and the unavailability of the alternate AC (AAC) power. Consequently, all systems that are AC powered such as the safety injection, shutdown cooling, component cooling water, and essential service water systems are unavailable. The aim of this study is to investigate the deficiencies of the existing alternatives for coping with an extended SBO for APR1400 design. The method is analyzing the existing deficiencies and proposing an optimal solution for the NPP design during the extended SBO. This study, established a new passive system, called passive decay heat removal system (PDHRS), using systems engineering approach.

• 에너지공학
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.96-108
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• 2015

피동원자로건물냉각계통(Passive Containment Cooling System; PCCS)은 전원 공급 없이도 원자로건물 내부의 열을 제거하여 그 건전성을 유지시키기 위한 안전설비이다. 본 연구에서는 현재 연구중인 PCCS를 1400 MWe 가압경수형 원전(APR1400)에 설치하는 경우 PCCS 성능을 분석하였다. 분석도구로 계통열수력분석코드 MARS-KS1.3을 사용하였다. PCCS의 성능분석을 위해 APR 1400 표준안전성분석 보고서를 참고하여 원자로건물 내부의 최대압력을 유발하는 사고 시나리오인 저온관 양단 파단사고를 모의하였다. 이 계산에서는 PCCS, 원자로냉각계통 및 원자로건물의 열수력을 동시에 모의하였다. 계산결과를 통해 기존의 원자로건물 살수계통을 대체하여 PCCS가 원자로건물의 건전성을 유지시킬 수 있음을 확인하였다. 또한 PCCS의 성능에 영향을 줄 수 있는 여러 인자를 변경해가며 민감도 분석을 수행하였고 PCCS의 문제점도 확인하였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권1호
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• pp.11-25
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• 2015

The accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, caused by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, resulted in a failure of the power systems that are needed to cool the reactors at the plant. The accident progression in the absence of heat removal systems caused Units 1-3 to undergo fuel melting. Containment pressurization and hydrogen explosions ultimately resulted in the escape of radioactivity from reactor containments into the atmosphere and ocean. Problems in containment venting operation, leakage from primary containment boundary to the reactor building, improper functioning of standby gas treatment system (SGTS), unmitigated hydrogen accumulation in the reactor building were identified as some of the reasons those added-up in the severity of the accident. The Fukushima accident not only initiated worldwide demand for installation of adequate control and mitigation measures to minimize the potential source term to the environment but also advocated assessment of the existing mitigation systems performance behavior under a wide range of postulated accident scenarios. The uncertainty in estimating the released fraction of the radionuclides due to the Fukushima accident also underlined the need for comprehensive understanding of fission product behavior as a function of the thermal hydraulic conditions and the type of gaseous, aqueous, and solid materials available for interaction, e.g., gas components, decontamination paint, aerosols, and water pools. In the light of the Fukushima accident, additional experimental needs identified for hydrogen and fission product issues need to be investigated in an integrated and optimized way. Additionally, as more and more passive safety systems, such as passive autocatalytic recombiners and filtered containment venting systems are being retrofitted in current reactors and also planned for future reactors, identified hydrogen and fission product issues will need to be coupled with the operation of passive safety systems in phenomena oriented and coupled effects experiments. In the present paper, potential hydrogen and fission product issues raised by the Fukushima accident are discussed. The discussion focuses on hydrogen and fission product behavior inside nuclear power plant containments under severe accident conditions. The relevant experimental investigations conducted in the technical scale containment THAI (thermal hydraulics, hydrogen, aerosols, and iodine) test facility (9.2 m high, 3.2 m in diameter, and $60m^3$ volume) are discussed in the light of the Fukushima accident.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권11호
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• pp.4329-4337
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• 2022

Jet impinging device is designed for decay heat removal on horizontal fuel rods in a low temperature heating reactor. An experimental system with a fuel rod simulator is established and experiments are performed to evaluate water film covering capacity, within 0.0287-0.0444 kg/ms mass flow rate, 0-164.1 kW/m² heating flux and 13.8-91.4℃ feeding water temperature. An effective method to obtain the film coverage rate by infrared equipment is proposed. Water film flowing patterns are recoded and the film coverage rates at different circumference angles are measured. It is found the film coverage rate decreases with heating flux during single-phase convection, while increases after onset of nucleate boiling. Besides, film coverage rate is found affected by Marangoni effect and film accelerating effect, and surface wetting is significantly facilitated by bubble behavior. Based on the observed phenomenon and physical mechanism, dry-out depth and initial dry-out rate are proposed to evaluate film covering potential on a heating surface. A model to predict film coverage rate is proposed based on the data. The findings would have reliable guide and important implications for further evaluation and design of decay heat removal system of new reactors, and could be helpful for passive containment cooling research.